SOCHI // Joachim Low hailed Germany’s “brilliant” 4-1 win over Mexico in the Confederations Cup semi-final and said his youthful squad are ambitious enough to beat Chile in Sunday’s final.
Low opted not to bring the majority of his World Cup winners to the Confederations Cup, but Germany’s young guns booked their place in the final in St Petersburg after a devastating opening spell in Sochi.
Attacking midfielder Leon Goretzka, 22, hit two goals in the first eight minutes to stun Mexico.
Timo Werner, 21, made it 3-0 midway through the second half, then Marco Fabian scored Mexico’s late stunning consolation with a thunderbolt free kick before Germany’s substitute Amin Younes, 23, netted Germany’s fourth.
“From the beginning, we did exactly what we set out to do — we were very dominant and brilliant in the opening stages,” the Germany manager Low said. “They pushed us back a bit in the second phase of the first half, which was to be expected, and we gave up a lot of ball. All in all, 4-1 is a great result.
“We wanted to go far, but this is nothing that we could have expected at the start of the tournament.”
After Germany drew 1-1 with Chile in the group stages last Thursday, Low says his team is hungry enough to beat the Copa America champions in the final.
“Chile is the most powerful opponent in this tournament, we know them pretty well and we expect them to go for it in the final,” he said. “They will be trying flat out to pull it off, as they are coming to the end of their season, and we will have to try and counter that.
“A lot of work has gone into our wins. We couldn’t pre-empt this [reaching the final] as some players had little experience and you couldn’t calculate how they’d react.
“We’ve become a team over the last few weeks. There’s fun in the dressing room, but they aren’t over the top.
“They know there is work ahead and they are ambitious enough to beat Chile.”
* Agence France-Presse
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